All the best towns have a museum in their water tower

Western Springs is a suburb of Chicago located in Cook County, Illinois, USA. As of the 2000 census, the village had a total population of 12,493. It is twinned with Rugeley, best known perhaps as the home of Rugeley B Power Station whose cooling towers dominate the Staffordshire landscape.

In November, 2007, BusinessWeek.com listed Western Springs second in a list of the 50 best places to raise children. The rankings were based on five factors, including school test scores, cost of living, recreational and cultural activities, number of schools and risk of crime. 

The Historic Water Tower was constructed in 1892 . On December 12, 1891, the village president at the time, Mr. Wickerson, sought the village's right to place a water tower on land that had been originally known as "Block A". On January 27,1892 Charles and Ruth Collins donated this land, "Block A" to the village of Western Springs.

The design and construction of the Tower was a collaboration between Benzette Williams and Edgar Williams of the firm of Williams and Williams (which later became known as MacRichie and Nichol) and Ethan Philbrick. All three were civil engineers and residents Western Springs. Benezette Williams and Ethan Philbrick eventually served as village presidents. The cost of the Tower combined with the sewer and pumping system as well as the pumping station was $79,119.10. 156 carloads of stone were ordered from the Chicago and Naperville Stone Company. Each stone was cut and shaped by hand on site. The Tower was constructed to be 112.5 feet high at its tallest point and 36.5 feet in diameter. The walls at its base are 6 feet thick and the original water tank held 133,000 gallons of water. The Tower itself served as the village offices, police department, jail and police magistrate court until 1968, when all were moved to a new administration building at 740 Hillgrove.

In 1991 a near disaster occured when the water tower museum was struck by lightning and caught fire.

More information is available from the Western Springs Historical Society website and

25 Moments In Western Springs History.

Barbara Leigh Smith Bodichon: Water Tower Artist

A surgeon and art collector in Canada has contacted BWTAS with a query about a watercolour by the 19th century artist Barbara Bodichon he recently purchased. Its title is "a water tower in a verdant landscape".

He asks if anyone knows in what country water towers of this kind might be found as Bodichon travelled extensively throughout Europe, America, Africa and the Middle East and maintained homes in Cornwall and Algiers. 

I am grateful to the doctor for alerting us to that Barbara Bodichon can be admitted to the Pantheon of water tower artists as she is one of the most remarkable women of the 19th Century. 

 

In 2007 Joan Wilkinson wrote an online review of Barbara Leigh Smith Bodichon – Feminist, Artist and Rebel by Pam Hirsch, Pimlico 1999, ISBN 0-7126-6581-1

Here is a nineteenth century Unitarian woman who deserves a biography such as this written by Pam Hirsch. 

The book demonstrates her significance as a woman who believed passionately in education, the rights of women to have a profession, legal property and access rights for women within marriage and divorce as well as someone who pursued her own career as a successful artist and intrepid traveller. She was Florence Nightingale's first cousin and George Eliot's closest friend. The book places her in the centre of many reforming groups and it is only surprising that there has been so little written about this key figure when those who had lesser impact at the time have become famous.

Barbara Smith had a solid Unitarian and political pedigree. Her Grandfather, William Smith (1756-1835) campaigned in Parliament for the abolition of slavery alongside William Wilberforce even though this was against his own business interests. He also worked for the repeal of religious disabilities and the reform of Parliament being the acknowledged leader of the Dissenting cause in Parliament. Benjamin, his son and Barbara's father, followed as a reforming MP and a man committed to the improvement of society. Education was close to Benjamin's heart and like his daughter later, financed the development of schools at different levels.

However, Barbara's origins were unconventional in that her father never married her mother, Anne Longden, who was considered of lowlier origins than the Smith family, being a milliner from Alfreton. They went on to have five children, Barbara being the eldest. Although Barbara's mother died in 1834 leaving a young family behind, Ben continued to care for his children and when he died in 1860 his family was left very comfortably off which allowed Barbara to maintain her independence and continue her financial commitment and interest in improving the opportunities for women.

In 1836 the children were moved from Sussex to Pelham Crescent on the sea front at Hastings. In 1837 Barbara joined the hustings in her father's colours when he stood as a candidate for Norwich. He didn't have as long a parliamentary career as his father but he faithfully attended and continued to support liberal causes.

Barbara and her sisters were educated from 1838 to 1841 at a Unitarian secondary school run by the Misses Wood in Upper Clapton, London. At this time teaching at this level as a career for women was little understood. From the age of twenty-one Barbara was to make a significant contribution in raising the level and opportunities for women in the educational sphere.

In 1848 her father gave her the title-deeds to his own educational experiment, Westminster Infant School. She visited many different types of school, noting the poor quality of the teachers and their methods. She envisaged a school along the lines of James Buchanan who followed the work of Robert Owen. She wanted children to draw more on their imagination rather than being bound by the Bible and learning by rote. She recognised the need to find a mistress who would share her ideals and spread the word amongst her large network of Unitarian friends and contacts. In 1853 Elizabeth Whitehead, a solicitor's daughter from Chelsea responded and the first task she was given was to train herself 'for the great experiment' (p.73) by visiting the best schools in London. After attending the weekly lectures of William Ellis and attending the Birbeck School in Peckham for six months, on 6th November, 1854, the Portman School was opened, with a progressive curriculum, educating boys and girls together, a new venture in education for middle class children. Barbara felt that the teaching of religion should be done in churches rather than schools and that a secular education would encourage tolerance amongst faiths and denominations. This was certainly a radical move.

Barbara's contribution to popular education was recognised when she was only one of twelve women asked to give expert advice to a Royal Commission in 1858.

Barbara deplored the lack of good training for women teachers and whilst most people recognise the work of Emily Davies as the driving force in establishing Girton College fewer realise that it was the brain child of Barbara Bodichon, who was the founder along with Emily Davies. It was through the contacts which Barbara had, plus her own money, £1,000, which allowed the project of providing a University education for women, to move forward. Emily Davies was an excellent committee person and secretary, but was autocratic in approach, whereas Barbara had amazing people skills and was able to smooth over many of the teething problems. Although Barbara wished to locate the first college in Cambridge Emily proceeded to rent Benslow House in Hitchen in 1869. On 16th October five female students undertook the same course as Cambridge undergraduates. It must be remembered though that it wasn't until 1881 that women from Girton and Newnham Colleges were admitted to the BA examinations, 1921 before women were granted titles of degrees, 1923 before they were admitted to university lectures and laboratories and 1948 before Cambridge would admit women to full membership.

On 15th May 1872 seventeen people, including Barbara, signed the Articles of Association for the new Girton College. Building started in 1872 and in October 1873 nine Hitchin students plus six new ones moved into the new building and thus Girton College became a reality.

We often take for granted the contribution which Florence Nightingale made in establishing training for nurses but it is less well known that Barbara encouraged Elizabeth Blackwell, the first woman doctor in America, to come over to England to help open up the medical profession for women.

Perhaps Barbara's greatest love was in being a professional artist. In 1849 she attended art classes given by Francis Cary at Bedford College. She went on to have connections with the Pre-Raphaelites and other women artists of the time. In 1856 she visited Algiers for the first time and found the change of light challenged her to develop her painting skills. She painted and drew both for exhibition and book illustration. In 1857 she founded the Society of Female Artists and also married Dr Eugene Bodichon, a French physician, from which time she spent the winter months at their home in Algiers and the summer months in England. It was never really a marriage of like minds and as time went on Barbara spent more time in England and didn't look forward to returning to her home in Algiers in spite of having her sister settled close by. In 1863 she built Scalands Gate on the family estate in East Sussex with the wish to create a space for her husband who appreciated nature and his own company. He appeared a strange man to many, continuing to wear Arabic attire even in England which prompted many of Barbara's friends to think he remained in his night clothes throughout the day. Before dying in 1885 he was spending more time in Algiers alone, increasingly suffering from dementia.

In 1858 along with her close friend, Bessie Parkes, Barbara founded the English Woman's Journal and the group of women connected with this project developed an agency to try and establish new types of employment for middle class women. However, with Barbara in Algiers for much of the winter, the group missed her mediating skills. On her return to England each year she was increasingly concerned with resolving the differences of opinion and working practices between the women involved on a day to day level.

Barbara never lost her enthusiasm for working towards a fairer society for women. In 1854 she wrote and had published: A Brief Summary of the Most Important Laws Concerning Women which challenged the laws whereby young children were considered the property of the father, who could, at a whim, forbid the mother having access. Later in 1866 she petitioned Parliament for the enfranchisement of women property holders and published: Reasons for the Enfranchisement of Women.

In 1875 she suffered her first stroke but retained her interest in the cause of women and particularly women and education. In 1884 she gave another £5,000 to Girton College. In 1891 Barbara died leaving a further £10,000 to Girton – a fitting legacy from an amazing nineteenth century rebel and reformer.

The biography by Pam Hirsch raises the profile of this Unitarian figure but much more than that it sets her in the context which looked back to the ideas and writings of Mary Wollstonecraft and forward to the suffragette movement and the twentieth century feminist movement. Barbara Leigh Smith Bodichon's life was embedded in the social, political and cultural events of the nineteenth century and Pam Hirsch successfully shows this key figure as being the driving force behind many projects working for reform, especially in the spheres of education and political rights for women.

Bodichon's husband Eugene also warrants a mention. The Times of London carried his obituary on 31 January 1885.

Dr Eugene Bodichon, one of the last of the little group known as the `Republicans of 30` and the author of many valuable works on Algeria, died at Algiers on the 28th inst. aged 74. Born of a noble Breton family at Nantes, Dr Bodichon early showed that adherence to Republican principles shared by his intimate friends, Ledru Rollin, Louis Blanc, Guepin of Nantes, and others, and was associated with them in their work of political propaganda. Dissatisfied with the conditions of things in France, he settled in Algeria 40 years ago, devoting himself to gratuitous services as a physician among the poor, and amassing materials for his `Considerations sur l`Algerie`, cited by the late eminent historian M Heni as second in interest and importance to the writings of the late General Daumas. In 1848, on being appointed Corresponding member of the Chamber of Deputies for Algiers, he immediately advised the liberation of the slaves throughout the province of Algier, which was done. On the establishment of the Empire his movements were closely watched and the types of his work `De l`Humanite` were broken up by the Imperial police. The work, which contains a striking study of the first Napoleon, was afterwards published at Brussels. Dr Bodichon was one of the first to draw attention to the valuable febrifugal qualities of the eucalyptus globulus, and of late years entirely devoted himself to its dissemination throughout the colony.

More details about both of them can be found in the scan from a contemporary directory of biography below.

But to answer the doctor's question: it is very hard to tell from this rather impressionistic painting whether this is a contemporary water tower or perhaps, like many of Bodichon's paintings, a view of ruin, in which case I'd hazard a guess it was a Roman cisterna, which is definitely a kind of water tower and could be found in North Africa. But if it is European, then if might also be a castle which has a fortified entrance accessible by water, such as in Chester, which are also called water towers. I could discount both of those suppositions though as the form appears to be square and both the castle and cisterna varieties are usually round. It could be something as prosaic as a railway water tower, which would have been something remarkable to a Victorian as we might admire a spaceport today.


If anyone can furnish any more details I hope they will get in touch and we can settle the doctor's questions about the context of this interesting work.

Endeavour House: where a water tower is a symbol for Suffolk

If you have ever been to the lobby of Endeavour House, the headquarters of Suffolk County Council in Ipswich, you may have hardly noticed that several large icons of the Suffolk landscape are painted in outline on the walls of the lobby. There is a house, a pylon, a bridge and, behind the reception desk, there is one of a water tower.

Apparently this is a work that was commissioned from an artist when the council first moved into the building (which was originally built to house TXU Energy).

A key to the icons is painted on the reception desk which explains that number 8, the water tower, is the one at Barking Tye, near Ipswich. However the name of the artist is not recorded and no one seems to know any more who it was. Sir or Madam, we understand and appreciate your vision, whomever you are.

If anyone has a photo of the lobby, please get in touch. They were a bit touchy about me whipping out the camera to record it.

Barking Tye photo by By AndrewH.uk from Flickr (some rights reserved)

e-book on Dorset water towers

Photographer Rich Meston has contacted BWTAS to tell us about his free e-Book 'Tower' a photographic study of what else, a local water tower. He writes:

This is a collection of sunrise shots from my office window, all of which feature the Water Tower at Tower Park in Poole, Dorset (in one way or another). There’s technical details for each of the shots, and a few hints and tips throughout. Let me know what you think.
Rich would like to enlist BWTAS brains trust for any information on one tower at Calluna Road, Poole.

Rich says: it's an interesting and very dominant structure on the horizon, and I lived in the area when it was built in the late 1980's. I had a bit of a search around, but couldn't find any information out and wondered if you knew of any other places to look. I'm primarily interested in the obvious details - when it was built, how tall, what capacity, what it's used for etc.

You can contact Rich Meston at rich@reikan.co.uk

Historic Culford water tower for sale

Estate agents Bedfords have the Culford water tower near West Stow in Suffolk for sale expecting offers around £250,000. Their description says:

The water tower is a substantial red-brick water tower, believed to date from the late 19th century, with a former pump house and store. It has been granted planning permission for conversion to a residential dwelling and offers a rare opportunity for someone to acquire their own grand design project.

With its link to Culford School, its setting, views and historical connections, including the tank having been founded by the same company that produced the Sphinxes at Cleopatra's Needle in London, H. Young & Co, engineers of Pimlico, we expect a lot of interest to be shown in this exciting project. The accommodation, when complete, will comprise ground-floor entrance hall, large kitchen/breakfast room, two bedrooms and a bathroom; first-floor lounge and master bedroom with en suite; and second-floor sitting room. 

The tower once served the Hall at Culford (now Culford School). Permission was granted in July 2008 to the owners, the Methodist Education Trust, to convert the tower to a dwelling.

Henry Young & Co. was founded in 1871 and traded from Eccleston Iron Works, Pimlico, London 1873-1902 and then Hayle Foundry Wharf, Nine Elms 1877-1902. It cast everything from bridge girders to statues and was frequently commissioned by the leading artists of the day. Besides the sphinxes for Cleopatra's needle, it cast the lamp standards along the Chelsea Embankment. The firm remains in business and has moved to Norfolk where it now specialises in complex structural work. Website H.Young Structures

More details and photos on Geograph

Endemol TV appeal for derelict historic homes

Endemol, the makers of the original BBC series ‘Restoration’ are in production for a new BBC Two series ‘Restoration Home’ and have asked BWTAS for help in locating perhaps a water tower to feature in this new series. They told BWTAS:

‘Restoration’ concentrated on some of our most wonderful, publicly-owned, built heritage, which was at risk of being lost to us forever unless something was done. Now the BBC has asked us to once again explore our nation’s wonderful built heritage, in the new series ‘Restoration Home’, which will feature historically and architecturally important buildings being lovingly restored by their private owners.

Each show will chart the restoration process by the owners of one house, as they restore their home to its former glory. Much as the original series, we’ll bring the property to life, setting it in its cultural and historic context. This is a major aspect of each show and will be interwoven with the restoration.  At the same time, we’ll be looking at the different stages of its architectural styles. The house may have different additions over time, and each one of these will reveal important social and historical developments. The restoration process will bring to light the difficult decisions about what ought to be saved and what can be sacrificed to make way for a 21^st century home.

Following is the press release:

REMARKABLE TELEVISION ARE PRODUCING A NEW SERIES FOR BBC2

ARE YOU SAVING OUR BUILT HERITAGE?

All over the country, there are spectacular historic properties that are at risk of being lost forever.  These buildings are part of our identity; they are the portals of our history, the keepers of our past. Without our protection we’ll not only be losing bricks and mortar, but their histories as well.

We would like to find owners of derelict, historic homes for a new BBC television series, and follow them as they save these architectural gems from ruin and restore them into wonderful 21^st century homes, whilst turning detective to unravel the properties’ extraordinary lives.

What secrets do these houses hold? What events happened?  Who lived there over generations?  How was the property used?

The restoration process will bring to light the difficult decisions about what ought to be saved and what can be sacrificed to make way for a 21^st century home.  How tough is it to balance sympathy for the past with the needs of modern day living?

At the end of it all, we’ll see an important historical property saved from dereliction and brought back to life to become a wonderful home once more.

If you are renovating a property, are interested in being part of the series and want to discover more about its structural and social history, please call 03335 777 740 or e-mail homes@endemoluk.com with your name and a few details of your property. (Calls from landlines are charged at your service providers national or local rate and mobile costs may vary)